The Cloud

Some interesting articles on slashdot about the growth of "cloud computing":

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=771
http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2009/08/defining-the-big-shift.html
http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/web_os_2009_large.png

My mode of managing my personal information has been slowly shifting to the "cloud" over time - when I switched to gmail a few years ago I eliminated all email clients on my PC. With my last new phone I switched my calendars and contacts over to Google applications from a PC-based Outlook, and this weekend I moved the rest of my "personal information management" stuff (tasks, notes) to Google applications as well.

As always, having everything online is a mixed blessing. It's accessible anywhere there's an internet connection, which is becoming basically anywhere. However, you're also ceding trust of your personal information over to a third party - in my (and many people's) case something free like Google. It's also NOT accessible if for some reason you can't connect to them.

When I was converting over my notes and documents, I did stop short of moving everything to Google docs - I separated all my documents into two categories, one being information I don't care if anyone sees and the other information I want to know for sure only I have access to. While I don't really think that anything in category one will be seen by the wrong people, if it's in the "cloud" there's always a chance it will be. So I am trading convenience for security on those documents (passwords, financial data, etc.) that I consider most important.

It will be interesting to see how this trend continues and we become more and more dependent on the internet and the "cloud". My latest phone isn't really worth much without an internet connection now (yes I can still call people without it). A PC is very much less useful without an internet connection now than it was 10 years ago. It seems that laws are going to have to catch up this trend soon - right now, we trust companies like Google not to abuse our information (and it's in their best financial interest not to do so) but legally there is probably lots of leeway as to what they can do with it.